As The Dust Settles
by IfUKnewUCouldNotFail
Summary: This is a belated season two premiere tag. Tom/Rachel aftermath tag, from Tom's POV. It also ended up being a bit of missing scene/flashback to 'Trials'. Picks up after the episode ends. So much has happened in the last 24 hours and Tom needs to find and talk to Rachel but at the same time he doesn't know what he can say to her. He is riddled with guilt for leaving in that place.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok, so this 'tag' is late because it refused to damn well end! Seriously, I sat down to write a few thousand word short tag, and it was still nowhere close to done at 3,000. Grrr…! The only way I was actually able to complete it in the end was by not letting myself watch the next episode until this was done and up, AND IT WAS TORTURE! So I REALLY hope you guys enjoy this…I _very much_ suffered for my art in this case. ;-P

LSLSLS

Tom knew he had been derelict in his duty to her…to all of them…and on many levels too. Not only had he thoughtlessly abandoned his people at Avocet, allowing them to be so easily be taken prisoner...putting Rachel's life and in turn the future of the entire human race in great jeopardy. A failing he could never forgive himself for, because he knew exactly how it had happened. Knew exactly why he had acted so rashly and foolishly and it was a great shame to the uniform he wore that he had put his own selfish desires ahead of the safety of so many others without a second thought.

He had been duped so easily because he had not _wanted_ to see the truth, and that was a shame he would never be able to live down. People had died, so many people, his people and many innocent others, because of _his_ mistakes. And it could have been so much worse too. If the crew on the bridge had not successfully kept the primordial from their scavenging invaders, there may not have been any crew left when he had finally returned.

Between her actions at Olympia, her treatment of Lt. Foster and her baby, and every other atrocity Amy Granderson had perpetrated, she had more than proved her capability and even _eagerness_ to do _anything_ that achieved her malevolent goals.

 ** _Anything…_**

Yes, it could definitely have been worse… but that knowledge was of small comfort to him right now.

Tom had just come from the top deck, an impromptu vigil for fallen heroes, at least the ones whose remains still resided on this ship…

He had spoken to Mike, or rather Mike had spoken to him, Tom had had little to say after his brief shell-shocked statement that he thought summed up their entire situation with depressing accuracy.

 _'_ _So this is home…'_

He had learned from him, at least in brief, the tragic events that had played out on the bridge, after _he_ had welcomed the Lion into his den and then promptly left his people to fend for themselves, unwarned and unprepared…

The shame and guilt were like knives to his heart.

There were other blades twisting there too.

 _His wife…_

He couldn't go there right now. It was just another of his failings in all this, that he had been too late to save his wife, and very nearly the rest of his family too… But he couldn't think of that, it was all too much right now, and it was his duty to his people, his ship and their mission that he needed to focus on now…belatedly.

Rachel.

So much had passed since their last _real_ exchange back when she had personally given him her miracle cure that ran through his veins now. He had of course seen her at Avocet before he left…briefly. He had seen her when he had eventually returned to Avocet for her too…also _very_ briefly, but the last time he had really _seen_ her had been back in his office, just the two of them, a simple syringe that had never before represented such immense hope…and a moment of shared celebration and happiness.

Yes, so much had changed since that time…

He _had_ to see her, talk to her. He could wait no more, but at the same time, he didn't _want_ to see her. Because he didn't have a clue what he could possibly say, how to possible justify his desperate failing…to her and their mission.

Ha! There _was_ no justification.

In his misery and self-punishment he even had to admit that he was actually self-centered enough to be more than slightly jealous of Tex! It was a tough pill to swallow but Tom had to recognize that he actually resented that the man had robbed him of his chance to free Rachel himself and in some small way maybe redeem himself for having gotten her captured in the first place.

How sick was that? From what he had gleamed the other man's timely return may be the only reason both the women he had liberated were still alive today. He owed the man his heartfelt thanks and a heavy debt that he would never be able to repay. And that was _exactly_ what he would tell the other man when they finally had a chance to speak properly. He was a big enough man to do that. His own petty shameful emotions could be put aside…preferably permanently.

As Tom made his way through the passageways, it was impossible to miss, despite his crews valiant continuing clean up efforts, that signs of the Nathan James' recent captivity were still everywhere. A bullet casing here, a discarded zip tie there, the utter disarray of any and all usually strongly secured items, and blood…so much blood. Tom knew if he had gotten back to the James just an hour earlier he would have found the bodies of the dead still laying where they had fallen…where they were butchered!

A tidal wave of anger, recrimination and cold hard guilt washed over him with the thought as he passed an ensign mopping up a particularly large pool of blood near the armory. From the amount of it, it was clear it was _not_ from one of his wounded but surviving crewmembers…

The ensign stopped in his task and acknowledged him with respect. Respect he wasn't sure he still deserved, but still, he duly nodded to the man and he saw him grimly continue in his set task as he passed and continued on to his final destination…Rachel's lab.

He had no doubt she would be there, not only had Mike just told him that she had only just rushed off to go put the saved primordial strain back on ice, but he had also told him that her lab had been hit hard. Understandably, it was presumed to be ground zero for what the vultures were looking for. Tom knew Rachel well enough to know she wouldn't allow her sanctuary to stay in a molested state for long.

Finally reaching his goal, the door already open, he stepped through it, under the firm belief the he was prepared for what he was to see on the other side… he was wrong.

Damn. He thought his quarters and office had been hit bad. They were nothing compared to this. The usually colored flooring of the room was almost completely invisible beneath the sea of white papers that littered the large expanse. It didn't look like a single file hadn't been pulled apart and haphazardly discarded upon rejection. And that was nothing compared to when his gaze traveled higher.

Machines were tipped over, some very clearly broken, even to his untrained eye. The quarantine area was destroyed, beyond any possible hope of repair. Most disturbingly, several glass vials lay shattered on the floor, their contents leaching on to the papers beneath…

Jesus! Had they really been trying to save and replicate her work? Or destroy it and any chance of reproducing it forever? From the look of this room, one would definitely be predisposed to assume it was the latter rather than the former…

And there in the corner of the room, huddled beside a small bar sized fridge that was laying out from the wall and on its side…was Rachel. Her knees were up and secured by her arms tight around them, her head was resting on her knees, obscuring her face from his view. But he didn't need to see her face to know that she was crying. Her shoulders shook at intervals and he could still hear the smallest sounds of restrained sobs from where he stood in the doorway. Even alone in this room, or thinking she was, she was still attempting to keep a stiff upper lip and hide her pain from others.

Tom wasn't remotely surprised, even though Mike had told him she seemed ok when she left, he wasn't so sure he had believed the man, or his ability to truly see past the mask when it came to Rachel. He knew he was only really just starting to himself…

Among everything else, there was Quincy to consider. It would probably sound strange to anyone else, but despite the fact that the man had been chasing her through the p-ways with a gun and spewing verbal abuse at her not so long ago, he had no doubt that that was in no way a factor in how much she grieved for the man who she had very much still called her friend.

In was a large part of the reason she was such an enigma to others, but she was one that _he_ was starting to understand. No matter how cold and hard she appeared on the outside sometimes…a lot of the time, he was beginning to realize a heart bigger than anyone he had ever known resided on the inside.

He also knew from recent times that her façade did indeed have the habit of breaking under such stress, like any normal person…she was just generally not considered to be a normal person by many.

It had in fact, Tom now realized, been the last conversation he was ever to have with Dr Tophet that had taught him this.

It had been during the trails, after they had lost Gibson. Tom had been angry, at her, rationally or not, for her part in his soldier's death. At himself for letting it happen. At the prospect of five more deaths and god know how many more after that, being just around the corner.

He had just been angry.

It had only been when he had returned to the lab after his own mini meltdown… Mike of all people had been the cool headed and oddly timed Rachel supporter then…it had confused him at the time. But when he had returned to her lab slightly cooler headed, he hadn't been able to see Rachel anywhere. He hadn't even noticed the woman so much as taking a bathroom break since the whole thing began and suddenly she was MIA after one of her charges had died and there was five more than needed her 100% attention to have a chance of surviving.

At first a moment of anger had again overtaken him, easily helped along by the sight of his now biohazard labeled fallen soldier's body being removed from the area. But a mere moment of contemplation had dulled the anger as a more likely truth has occurred to him.

He had taken his moment to break down and feel the tragedy and helpless frustration of the moment…why not the doctor who was probably feeling a hundred times more responsible, having injected her with the substance that stopped her heart herself?

That was when all his anger had vanished in an instant, at least all of it that had liberally been directed in Rachel's direction. There had still been heavy amounts of frustration and anxiety roiling in his veins, but he had let the anger go. There had been no place for it, at least no one to truly direct it to on his ship, they were all just doing their best, and none of them were perfect.

In hindsight he was very glad that that epiphany had come at that moment and not even five minutes later. For if he had still been nursing that giant 'the world is unfair and it is everybody else's fault' chip on his shoulder when he had next made eye contact with Tophet when he had entered the room not long after him, he may have been sorely temped the throw the man back in the brig! Under the reasoning that he was apparently useless in his present job that was the only reason he had been released to start with.

Rios had caught him before his return and told him that the treatment to save the others, that Tophet had argued so fervently for, had _not_ in fact worked.

But nursing a cooler head he had been able to see the truth in the man's face. He had just been trying to help to the best of his abilities, abilities that both of them should have known Rachel surpassed.

Yes, the man had probably been the most imperfect of all of them during this crisis, despite his skill and knowledge of the very beast they were fighting. He had failed more tests than he had passed, but then Tom knew he had to remember that he had been handed more tests than anyone of them too. And now it was with cringing awareness that Tom remembered that when it had come to the moment when he had had the chance sitting right in front of him to act now and save his family, he too had chosen ill and blindly and Rachel and others had suffered for it…just like the choices Tophet had made under the blindness of desperation and hope.

After breaking eye contact with the clearly shamed man, he too very notably aware that his plan had not in fact borne fruit, his thoughts again had strayed to Rachel, her wellbeing, and her whereabouts…

Not sure exactly why, put picking up on some nonverbal clue, he moved towards the hatch Tophet had just emerged from…only to be stopped by the man himself.

"Rachel's in there." Was all the man had said, offering no more information but standing somewhat defensibly in his path, thus giving him all the information and validation of his theory that Tom needed.

It had been strange to see the man who had so recently been verbally abusive and even violent towards Rachel, now acting noticeably…and _believably_ …protective of her, but Tom had to admit that stranger things had indeed happened, since the world had changed…and before.

"That's good, she's the one I'm looking for." Was all he had said. Not giving away that he had a fair idea of the condition she was in and the reason Tophet was acting all 'night in shining armory' all of a sudden.

"Just…give her some time." Was all he had returned with. For the first time giving away more overtly that she was indeed in a condition to need it.

"We don't _have_ much time." He had returned calmly. Stating the obvious. Despite their seemingly hopeless situation back then, he had still held some small hope that they were going to pull it out of the fire, and by they, he meant Rachel, but for that he had needed her to be present and aware.

"She won't need much, she never does. She'll come back…soon, she always does." The man had stated the facts so calmly and resolutely that it had been impossible not to believe and trust him then. Which was quite a feat considering the most recent massive failure of something else he was _absolutely sure_ of.

Again, very strangely under their not so long ago circumstance, but that was probably what he was going to miss most about the man. Something he had only just begun to discover him. He had been a window, a cheat sheet, into Rachel and her idiosyncrasies. One that events had not allowed him to really recognize for a long time and then one he hadn't really been able to trust when he had started too.

But he had been, Tom had started to really see the extent of their bond in what were to be the man's last days. He would go so far as to say the man could have been the keeper of all Rachel's secrets, at least the ones she had let another human being know. If she had, or had been unable to avoid it, it was his bet that it had been Tophet that had known of it…and now he was gone. Likely the person Rachel had been closest to and relied on more than anyone else alive…and now he was dead.

Tom very much suspected that he was going to miss the insights and help the man could have been to Rachel, in what was clearly going to be a very troubled coming time. From there experiences of Baltimore, it unfortunately seemed impossible that there was even the smallest chance of things getting much better, before they got so much worse.

And on that occasion the other man had been right, it had only been minutes later when a reinvigorated whirlwind by the name of Doctor Rachel Scott had blown back into the lab and saved the day and as it had been believed back then, the world… Only time had taught them that what they had believe to be their last battle and victory, had actually only been there first of what was probably going need to be a great many.

A louder sob broke Tom was his painful reminiscing. His gaze once again locked on her small figure in the corner, made to look all the smaller by the huddled nature of her current misery ridden posture. Her head was still buried and had not lifted. It was a safe bet she had no idea he or anyone else was interrupting her tearful solitude. The mask would be being pulled firmly back in place if she did…her sobs would not be getting louder and less controlled, of that he was certain.

From what he knew and could guess, the woman did not take moments like this to truly let herself feel often enough, and thus he was loathed to interrupt her…but by the same token, he simply couldn't turn around and leave her in this miserable state. Neither his body nor his mind would cooperate with such and plan.

While he could not leave her like this, his mind had also found extreme fault with him remaining in place as a silent voyeur to her vulnerable state, and so he spoke…soflty, calmingly he hoped…

 _"_ _Rachel."_

 ** _TBC_**


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently provoking a feeling of calm was not his forte…she jumped…just about out of her skin. Tom sighed, she was already wiping her eyes and trying to leaver her uncooperative body out of its tight hiding spot when he made his way over and squatted down in front of her.

She stopped trying to get up. But he knew that was more because he had effectively blocked her path with his own body, then any actual desire to stay in his presence. She would not make eye contact with him, still futilely trying to hide the evidence of her tears, only making her usually flawless olive skin even redder in the process. He spoke her name again…

 _"_ _Rachel."_

A loud sob she clearly had lost control over rose from her, at the sound of her gently spoken name. Another followed it, as did heavy tears, that she had clearly not managed to successfully will away. She again buried her face between her knees, he was sad to note that this time she was likely hiding her state from him, rather then simply preforming a self-protective gesture.

His heart went out to her. This strong force of nature of a woman, broken by the events of the last twenty-four hours. He didn't know if it was right or how comfortable either of them would be by the gesture at this moment, but he couldn't restrain the fierce need to hold her again...and so he didn't.

He inched closer, knelt in front of her and wrapped his arms around her tightly. At first she did not more, just froze, but slowly and to his great relief, she started to relax in the embrace…even raised her head slightly so that she leaned on his shoulder, even raised her shock and grief weakened limbs to try and return his embrace, give some support back to him. The actions causes an emotion he could not and would not name at this moment to spark back to life in a corner of the most grief-ridden portion of his heart.

They stayed like that for several minutes, gradually Rachel's sobs grew softer and less frequent and her tears dried. Hypocritical though it was, Tom was glad she had been content to stay like that, facing away from one another, for the extended time. It had given the few tears he could not been able to control either a chance to show themselves without her able to witness, and then hide themselves again as he too got himself under control. Though if she was very observant she may still have noticed the change in his breathing, may still notice the likely redder tinge to his eyes…

It was by mutual decision when they did eventually pull apart, though still close enough that their lower bodies remained in contact, where they both still crouched on the floor.

He looked at her then, met her eyes, she wasn't hiding from him now. He was glad of it, but also pained by what he saw in those brown orbs. He would bet her tears had stopped because she had no more to shed, too numb to what was now their reality to shed anymore. She looked so sad…

 _"_ _Rachel_ …I'm…I'm sorry about Quincy." He really didn't what to say, or more likely where to start. There was a lot to say, a lot to apologize for…but Tophet seemed like a good place to start right now. Even sitting in the ruins of her precious lab, he would still bet that it was the loss of her friend, protecting her cure, that was weighing most heavily on her in this moment… Though he knew that the other lives lost and the lives that would still be lost now, that her ruined lab represented, would not be far behind in her worries. They had done it all to get to her and her work, it was what Tophet had given his life for, and he knew she would be painfully aware of it.

He watched as her eyes glazed over at the mention of the man. He was right, she was thinking about him, among other things…

"Thank you, Captain." She replied nearly unbrokenly, shifting her gaze and attempting to subtly wipe her eyew. She was clearly trying to pull herself together again.

Tom sighed, the feeling of her starting to pull away again was as tangible as a slap in the face, had a similar effect too. He didn't want to let it happen though, not yet…preferably not ever.

"Rachel, look at me."

She hesitated a notable moment, clearly considering whether to comply, but eventually her shoulders slumped and she looked straight at him. Not with anger, not with stubbornness…both of which he had seen from her in some of their more tense confrontations of the past. But no, this time she just looked at him, her face as expressionless as she could make it at this sad time, her gaze unmoving. He had her attention again, it was his turn to speak, there was more he needed to say.

"Rachel, there's more I need to apologize to you for… _everything_ actually…I shouldn't have left you there…"

He felt her hand reach out to him almost instantly, felt her grip settle at his shoulder as she spoke.

"Captain…Tom, don't. Please don't, please don't blame yourself for what you could not have known…" She spoke earnestly, but he could not let go of his self-doubt, the selfish part he played in events, if it weren't for his untimely hope…

" _But I_ _ **could**_ _have."_ He argued. "I trusted _too_ easily, I left you alone and unprotected without a second thought because I _wanted_ to believe too badly, _wanted_ to believe it was safe to leave you there and find my family. Even before that, I showed poor judgment in letting Granderson's people come aboard… _armed_ for heaven's sake!"

Rachel was quiet for a moment, he could only assume that she was finding it hard to refute some of his claims, and to his mind that was about right. There was no refuting them.

"Captain." So she was back to formalities. The change had been brief, but he had liked it more than he knew he should have. "You trusted people who _should_ have been trustworthy. They were the remains of government, of law enforcement, a trusted member of your crew's own _Mother_ … All of us have learned a hard lesson in this, **_literally_** **_no body_** can be trusted on face value now… A lesson I would point out you most need to remember if we ever come across anyone left of the US military…or any other for that matter. I think it would be hardest for you to go against supposed superiors orders, even after all this. But Captain, I would stress that we only know this **_now_**. Before, nobody could possibly have predicted how far they had fallen from the ideals they had all been sworn to uphold."

She spoke with conviction, and there was some truth in her words, especially her warning about trusting and taking orders from anyone from now on. It had actually crossed his mind already. In all this he had acted like his word being the highest law was a temporary state, just until they could again establish contact with back home and some semblance of a chain of command.

He had never wanted to turn his ship into a permanent dictatorship and in truth his desire to restart some form of a land based chain of command was probably partly to blame for his overly trusting actions in all this, though he knew desperation to get to his children home safe had been the large part too…

But it was actually true that if Amy Granderson had proved to be a leader worth following, follow her he would have. Tom felt sickened at the thought. If he had found his family at that Tyre Shop, so much could have been different.

He was nauseous at the thought that Granderson might have been able to successfully hide her true nature and the nature of mission from him. They all could have been duped into far more than just willingly handing over a few dozen doses of the cure to thoroughly undeserving people.

It was painful to admit, but they could easily have been tricked into becoming complicit with genocide.

He was drawn out of his tumultuous thoughts by Rachel's voice. Realizing not quickly enough that she had taken his long silence as disagreement to her words…well, some of them he wished he could truly believe.

"Captain, things went badly because we, yes, walked into the vipers den unprepared, but contrary to your belief, I don't belief we could have acted much different or figured it all out any sooner than we did. Honestly, it could easily have taken a lot longer to get a handle on what was really going on. It was almost amazing we did figure it out as quickly as we did, given the strangle hold Granderson had on the city and the flow of information." She paused and he could see her trying to will him to believe her words with her eyes. She continued.

"I still can barely believe that she and Hamada went to so little trouble to hide the truth of what was going on in the lab. They actually made no effort at all that I could see to hide the ingredients for the real serum they were giving the sick. And they really seemed to think I would read it and believe that their highly toxic drug was working as a treatment…it's still unbelievable to me!" She spoke the last part almost to herself.

"The point, Captain." She again searched for his eyes and for his faith in her and her words. "…is that as hard as all of this already it, and as hard as it is to imagine, things could have gone worse for us in Baltimore. _A lot worse_ , and that is what I am trying to remember and focus on, there _was_ some victory even in our defeat. Not only could we have lost the primordial but it sounds like there was a great fear onboard that if they had found it, the entire crew would have become quickly expendable…"

Tom nodded, he had heard the same thing and believed it too. After seeing what Granderson had being doing at Olympia, what she had sanctioned done to Lt. Foster…it was just impossible to envision any moral or ethical boundary she would not willingly cross.

"You're right, I shudder to think what would have happened then. I know it was Quincy who played a large part in keeping it from them. Mike told me he knew, knew what it would mean if they found it, knew exactly what he was doing when he pulled his own clamp. Not just trying to save his wife's life, but the whole ship…it was a heroic action, Rachel." Tom wondered if she noticed when his voice broke slightly on the word 'wife', he wasn't sure if she even knew about what had happened in regards to his own family…

She was silent for a long while. He could see she was fighting with her emotions. Eventually she nodded to him, apparently accepting his words and his praise of her now dead friend.

And it seemed she had picked up on his slightly broken speech, even if only subconsciously, because her next question was the one he had been dreading.

"What about you? You went after your family…you found them, yes? They were sick? But it worked? The cure, it worked? Someone told me a boy had a bad reaction, was that your son? I'm so sorry, I had planned to go and find them but then I needed to bring the primordial to the lab and…" She gestured to the surprisingly still operational fridge they were crouched beside as her words trailed off.

Her implication was clear, she had got as far as her lab, put her much-valued sample back on ice and then it had promptly all become too much for her, and she had been unable to hold back the emotions that had been threatening for nearly a day. He wasn't surprised it had happened here and now, in the wake of the battle amongst the stark evidence of why they and so many had been forced to endure so much.

She was looking at him now, waiting. Waiting for his confirmation, his consolation that _something_ in all this had worked out well for someone. On so many levels he hated the qualified success he had to report to her.

He could see how much she wanted some really good news in all this. And the absolute last thing he wanted was for her to in any way blame herself…something he doubted he could stop any more than he could stop himself from second guessing any and all of the actions and decisions that had lead to him not being able to save and bring his _entire_ family home.

"Rachel, yes, they were sick, but the cure _did_ work. I unfortunately had to leave them not long after finding them. I heard that Sam did have a bad reaction, but he seems much better now… Of course, I would appreciate it if you would look at him when you can…and Ashley and Dad too." There, that was it. She was far too smart to not pick up on…

"But…what about your wife? ...Darien?" She asked, not entirely sure she had picked out the right name, likely having never used it, merely heard it somewhere…

He couldn't prevent his eyes from clouding as he stared at her. Grief and regret were going to be his familiar bedfellow for some time to come, he knew.

He willed himself to speak, even though he didn't need to, he could see clearly that she had read the truth it in his eyes. He watched as her gaze also shadowed, mirroring his own.

"I didn't make it in time." He said simply. More words meant a much higher chance of him not being able get them out without them breaking.

His answer seemed to cement what she had already assumed. He watched as a tear once again rolled down her cheek.

"Oh, Tom…" She looked grief struck, even more so than for her own personal loss. She really cared too greatly, this woman who many would question if she cared at all. That was just because she let so few people see her, _really_ see her. He was glad he was becoming someone she would let in, he was well aware she had just lost one of the few who could also see her.

He tried to put on a brave face, but he suspected she could see right through it. "As you said, it could have been far worse. It so very nearly was…when I found them…Darien…she was already gone... but Dad, the kids…they were in line at Olympia." He finished meaningfully.

"Oh, god." She uttered in genuine shock, eyes wide. She clearly only had the very barest of information on the events of the past day, outside her own experiences, of course.

Tom guessed it was the common story on the ship, everybody knew of the tragic events that occurred closest to them. But will the battle taking place on both land and water, everyone had the specifics of at least one side to catch up on. And given everyone's current state's of shock, scuttlebutt was not moving at even close to its usual breakneck speed.

Even some of what Rachel had said about her time at the lab at Avocent had come as a surprise to him, and now that it was over he wasn't even sure if he _wanted_ to know the entire story of what had been going on with Lt. Foster and her presence at Avocet. Though knowing their enemy as he now did, he suspected his bone-chilling guess was not far off the money.

Again he was pulled from his musings by Rachel's words.

"God, I'm so sorry… If I had just been a little faster. If I had just figured out that…" Yep, he knew she was going to think this way, blame herself…

"Rachel, listen to me. As you said yourself, this could have been a lot worse, but it couldn't easily have been much better. We didn't have the information we needed in order to make it so things could have been better, so more people could have lived! If you want me to try and believe that and not blame _myself_ , I'm going to need _you_ to do the same." He spoke adamantly and with _outward_ conviction. For himself, he wasn't even sure if not blaming himself was even possible, but for her sake, and if it would make her try to go a little easier on herself in return, he would give it a go…or just keep his own negative thoughts to himself. It would probably depend on how good a day it was.

"Do we have a deal, Rachel? I'll _try_ and not blame myself and think of all the 'what if's' if you do the same. Can you make that promise to me?"

"Depends, can you really promise me too?" She questioned, some of her old sparkling defiance reentering her eyes.

He almost laughed. At this moment, looing into her eyes, he was strangely confident the he _might_ be able to keep his word. "Yes, I promise." He smiled a sad smile at her.

"Then I promise too." She returned his smile in their brief parlay of mirth.

Tom knew the battle against self would be one that would be ongoing for both of them, but this was a start.

 **THE END**

A/N: There! Done! Finally! I seriously have to go watch episode three now, I have done my time, I NEED my reward… lol ;-P


End file.
